The invention relates to a protective glove and its method of manufacture.
Protective gloves are already known which are particularly intended for handling industrial castings (beams, blocks, tubes etc.) on the one hand and for protecting the user's hands against chemical products (acids, bases, grease, oils, solvents etc.) on the other hand. These gloves must thus withstand temporary physical or mechanical stresses (humidity, blunt objects, abrasive surfaces etc.) and permanent chemical stresses owing to the fact that certain chemical products such as oils and greases in particular, remain on the surface of the glove after it has been worn.
Protective gloves made from rubber or elastomer are known (French Pat. No. 2.256.730). However, the latter have a very limited use on account of the material used. Protective gloves are also known which have an inner lining of flexible fabric, for example interlock, completely covered externally by a film of plasticized polyvinyl chloride. This covering is produced in manner known per se by soaking, draining and gelling. Now, if the polyvinyl chloride is virtually insensitive to the action of chemical products, this is not true of the plasticizers. Consequently, the qualitative and quantitative composition of the plasticizer determines the qualities of mechanical and physical strength of the glove on the one hand and of chemical resistance on the other hand, which are related to each other. In fact, for example, such a plasticizer giving the glove very good qualities of chemical resistance, such as resistance to extraction by solvents, also gives the glove low flexibility, such that this glove is uncomfortable and awkward to use.
Thus, although this type of glove is satisfactory in theory, in practice its number of applications remains limited. This limitation of the number of applications has been shown particularly in British Pat. No. 880,166, U.S. Pat. No. 3,268,355, French Pat. No. 1.145.656 and Belgian Pat. 677.916. These patents intend either to modify the properties of the skin of the coating material, or to provide several layers covering each other completely, or to include local reinforcements in the protective coating, or to obviate a fault inherent in the inner coating layer by an additional coating layer. However, none of these patents intends to provide a glove which is fine and flexible throughout, simultaneously having excellent qualities of mechanical and physical strength and excellent qualities of chemical resistance. On the contrary, the patents cited propose solutions which are a compromise between the desire for fineness, flexibility, excellent qualities of mechanical and physical strength and excellent qualities of chemical resistance, which does not make it possible to produce satisfactory gloves.